Owen leads Barracuda Championship by five points

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Los Angeles - England's Greg Owen surged to the top of the leaderboard on Saturday in the third round of the PGA Tour's Barracuda Championship, the Reno, Nevada, tournament that uses the Modified Stableford scoring system.

Owen, who is seeking his first USPGA Tour victory, had a total of 37 points and leads Derek Fathauer and Stuart Appleby by five points.

He could have had a bigger lead if he hadn't stumbled badly on the final hole, where his tee shot was in the rough and his fourth shot went into the water in front of the green.

The double-bogey cost him three points under the points system designed to reward aggressive play. The system awards eight points for an albatross, five points for an eagle and two for a birdie.

Bogeys result in a loss of one point and double bogeys or worse mean a loss of three points. Pars don't affect the score.

Owen scored 14 points for the round, one shy of the day's best round by Ricky Barnes. Barnes was alone in fourth place on 31 points.

Barnes's nine birdies included five in a row from the 12th through the 16th.

At age 45, Owen would become the second-oldest first time winner since 1970 if he pulled out the victory in Sunday's final round at the Montreux golf course.

Australia's Appleby claimed his share of second on 32 points when he birdied 18 for the third straight day. He scored eight points for the round while Fathauer tallied 11.

Appleby, a nine-time PGA Tour winner, only missed one fairway in the third round and needed only 23 putts.

From Barnes it was one stroke back to Americans Richy Werenski, Ben Martin, Dicky Pride and Tom Hoge on 30 points.

Leading point totals after Saturday's third round of the PGA Barracuda Championship, which uses a Modified Stableford scoring system that awards eight points for an albatross, five for an eagle, two for a birdie, zero for par, minus one for a bogey and minus three for any worse score (USA unless noted):

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